Three questions: First, is Narendra Modi an economic reformer? Second, where would he rank in the list of India’s reformists: P.V. Narasimha Rao, Dr Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee? And third, how successful is he in implementing his reformist ideas?
If the answer to the first question is yes, what does he have to show for as he begins his seventh year?
A lot has been announced and welcomed by those like us waiting for reforms to resume after a 10-year drought since UPA-2 began its slow suicide in 2010. Railways, agriculture, banking, manufacturing, labour laws, power sector, civil aviation, FDI in new sectors, PSUs, coal, mining, taxation — the list is impressive. But, as a Class 1 child would do in her arithmetic, draw a line under all these, and the answer will be pretty much zero.
Which brings us, sort of naturally, to the third question. Is Narendra Modi capable of implementing his ideas, especially the big, reformist ideas? You would have to be nuts, or a Naxal, urban or rural, if you said no. Think demonetisation and nationwide lockdown at four-hour notice from 8 pm. That’s decisive.
Why has he, then, been struggling so badly in converting his economic reform ideas into reality? It isn’t just coronavirus. The virus came three months back. India’s economy was in a steep fall for almost two years. There is indeed a factor of ‘the day after’ corona worsening our economic crisis. But there was a severe enough crisis even ‘the day before’. We can begin with his first big reform, the Land Acquisition Bill.
Also read:Don’t absolve Modi by saying he doesn’t have the right team to bring in economic reforms
Granted, you can blame that on politics or Rahul Gandhi. But here is a quick listing from the top of my mind, and with the help of ThePrint’s Senior Associate Editor for economy, Remya Nair. You can add more as we go along. There was a committee to overhaul direct taxes under then-CBDT member Akhilesh Ranjan, which submitted its report in 2019. It’s still not in public, and the file has been sent into, what late George Fernandes had said about India’s defence purchases, “bureaucratic orbit”, circling idly with no destination.
After demonetisation, the prime minister announced his Garib Kalyan Yojana, which was a kind of tax amnesty scheme, hoping to collect big bucks like P. Chidambaram’s VDIS (Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme) of 1997. Zilch came. The tax rate was so confiscatory and punitive, it was no amnesty. Rules drafted were so complex, that you’d be high on something illegal to make a disclosure under these.
There is a pattern to the Modi government’s economic decisions: The follow-up, the design of the plan, implementation takes too long. And by the time it is done, it is such a jumble of bureaucratese that it looks more like an overcooked spaghetti bowl. What is the status of the PSU bank reform, for example? Where is the promised bank holding company? Longer tenure for PSU bank chiefs, accountability of their boards? All good ideas idling in George Fernandes’s deadly orbit.
Power sector reform is a disaster twice over. A third attempt has been announced now. Let’s watch.
The same for coal. So many times has the coal and mining reform, and private sale, been announced in six years, that even Google is confused and searching for clarity. It has been announced yet again, in the latest, pandemic-package.
The inability of the Modi government to sell even one PSU in six years, except to itself in the manner of a Milo Minderbinder in Catch-22, does zero justice to a prime minister with such enormous power. Not even Air India. This year, there is an obvious challenge. But in his first tenure, his teams came up with a sale document so complicated, it might have needed the intellect of a Lord Shiva to unravel it. And then, the courage and strength of a Lord Hanuman to buy the company, and risk spending your life with CBI, CBDT, CVC and the courts, and jail. These four dreaded ‘Cs’ have only become stronger, rather than being reformed in these six years.
Also read: PM, CM, DM: India’s 3 big power centres have been exposed by one disaster
The answer to our first two questions, therefore, lies in the third. Modi comes off poorly, and doesn’t feature anywhere in the rankings of our reformist leaders yet, because his implementation of his own ideas has been poor. So, A+ for ideas, C- for implementation, and maybe B- on the rankings, essentially because of the bankruptcy code, some PSU bank mergers and GST.
Take your mind back to 1991. The political direction for reforms came from Rao’s minority government, but it had a stellar team of civil servants. And this continued until about 2009, after which Congress’s internal politics killed even the thought of reform. List the sherpas who hauled the reform up.
There were in three categories: Bureaucrat-economists (N.K. Singh, Y.V. Reddy, D. Subbarao, K.P. Geethakrishnan, all IAS), economist-bureaucrats (Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Bimal Jalan, Vijay Kelkar, Rakesh Mohan), and some pucca bureaucrat-bureaucrats who knew how to get things done. Think about A.N. Verma (principal secretary in Rao’s PMO), Naresh Chandra, who held every job or headed every reform committee that mattered (including defence) for those two decades, and Abid Hussain. And tough truth to tell, a memo written under their watch would never need one amendment for clarity or contradiction, forget multiple ones, as is now the norm in the lockdown period.
There are three ways in which they were different. One, the career bureaucrats among them had their moment under the ‘mai-baap’ sarkar sun. When the state had enormous power. Having enjoyed it, they were happy to give it up now. Which is essentially what reform, or the spirit of ‘less government, more governance’, is.
Two, having lived most of their lives through pre-reform years, they had experienced the shortages and miseries that the licence-quota raj brought. Listen to Montek and N.K. Singh recount their stories of the humiliation when a hotel in New York wouldn’t check them in, full secretaries, because Indian credit cards were not valid overseas. Or realising at a big multilateral negotiation in a Geneva hotel, that you could tell whether an Indian had been in a lift by sniffing petrol. Because India still did not allow the import of modern dry-cleaning equipment. A memory bank of such experiences brought the impetus for reform.
And third, combining this IAS group with lifelong economist-bureaucrats brought in intellectual weight. Finally, each one of these was allowed a long tenure in economic ministries. The career of N.K. Singh from joint secretary (commerce) onwards (even now he heads the 15th Finance Commission) is an example. Today, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is the only durable economic bureaucrat.
The current civil service leadership consists mostly of secretaries of the 1985-87 batches. They are children of reform, or let us say, officers of the ‘colour TV era’ (beginning 1982). They don’t know what we were denied pre-reform, but also never knew the powers their predecessors gave away. They don’t have to be on a three-year waitlist for a Premier Padmini, even on IAS quota. They lack that motivation for reform, and they are only now learning to enjoy old powers, with the lockdown.
Think of the power of a civil servant ordering, hey, you 138 crore demented children, you will be on curfew between 9 pm and 5 am because didn’t mummy say it’s dangerous in the dark? And listen again, if you live in the green zone, you can eat tutti frutti ice cream. In orange, maybe strawberry. In the red zone, only vanilla, and that too if I can have it delivered to you. Then say thank you, jaan hai, toh jahaan hai. And reform, you want me to give up these powers? I haven’t even learnt to write a clean memo yet.
Also read: Situation normal, but all locked up: How Modi govt has risked incapacitating India
Fascists always implement their ideas decisively no matter what. It’s stupid of us to compliment them. It makes you look like a fascist, urban or rural.
I fully agree with your wise comments Mr Naveen Rao.
But the problem is that when voters fall for the propaganda of fascists and vote facsists to run the country, then democracy has no chance.
Donald Trump, the darling of racist white Americans famously said: “I can stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone dead and nothing will happen to me”. And given the extenet to which Republican politicians have obsequiously toed the Trump line, I am pretty sure that they will bend backwards to defend that bigoted charlatan.
Exactly the same thing is happening in India. Modi can egg on the lynchings of Muslims, wreck the economy, weaken the already weak unity of India, stir religious strife and still, the middle classes will vote for him. Indians want a “benevolent dictator”. And in Modi they have a man who is fast becoming a dictator with neither benevolence nor development to show for it. Therein lies the tragedy of Indian democracy.
Shekhar Gupta is missing schmoozing with the powers that be of yesteryears. Those were glorious times for the Lutyens mafia.
Alas, Modi has kicked out all the dalals from corridors of power, and therefore Mr Gupta goes into a sulk.
Mr/Ms Mandal: When you pontificated:
“Modi has kicked out all the dalals from corridors of power”
did you not forget the many crony capitalists who bankroll whoever happens to be in power in Delhi ? And that they are very much alive, kicking and kickbacking?
After all, the one constant in Indian politics, both at the Centre and in the States is the nexus between the netas, crony capitalists and various criminal outfits who supply muscle power. Thus, bankrupt Anil Ambani with many NPAs to his credit wins the contract for Rafale maintenance. Needless to say, Anil Ambani is yet to demonstrate that he can manufacture even a screw to the exacting tolerances of the aviation industry. And then you have the Adanis.
Not to forget the brilliant, opaque system of BJP financing called “Electoral Bonds”. And then you have land allotments to gomutra magnate Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali web of companies. And then you have Surat based trader Laljibhai Patel who purchased Modi’s monogrammed suit for a large sum of money and in turn has been rewarded with government land for building his sports club. And then you have the regulatory changes at Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that favour Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group.
The list is endless Mr/Ms Mandal. Noteworthy though is the large number of Gujarati dalals who seem to benefit from their proximity to the 56 inch chested Gujarati.
Bottomline: There is no major difference between the Congress, the BJP or any other political party in India. Netas and Dalas exist in a symbiotic relationship to each other. Alas, that symbiotic relationship also entails a bloodsucking, parasitic relationship that preys and punishes the people. Particularly the poor.
Not that I expect people like you who suffer from tunnel vision exacerbated by saffron tinted glasses to comprehend that.
ol’picklepuss modi
“The Modi ” wants to make life easy for individuals, businessmen . But Mr. Modi wants to catch all the Bad Apples in society, Thinking that it is possible to have clean and honest society. The result is a hotch potch of policies. e.g. Encourage manufacturing in India . But create new policies regularly for car manufacturers which makes their business difficult, encourage electric vehicles and reduce market of oil based cars. thereby reducing incentives for new car manufactures. For individuals make electronic process for e filing, but make the ” SAHAJ” IT form more complicated.
The shameless BJP-IT-CELL stooges, whose primary profession is to watch P.0.R.N. and side-by-side tweet about the glory of Modi, are under the impression that their “noble” leader is going to pay them even after he goes out of power. They can display their gimmicks only as long as he carries any credibility. They think nobody knows who they are. They will surely be thrashed once the BJP goes out of power. As it is, the BJP is not only running out of ideas, but also running out of money now. Any reparations they try to undertake is likely to be a failure and will become another debacle in the long line of debacles exhibited over their tenure.
Mr/Ms RS: I fully agree with the thrust of your article.
But it is highly debatable whether the RSS ideology of Hindutva that Modi and his saffron acolytes like Adityanath, Gadkari, Jawadekar and other non-termites have tried to foist upon the nation can be termed as an “agenda of social reform” as you do in your post. RSS espouses ideas like “Akhand Bharath”, the disbanding of secularism and the remodelling of India along the laws of Manu and the putrid, fascist ideas of Golwalkar & Savarkar. Indeed, the RSS tried to thwart many progressive reforms introduced by Nehru such as preventing child marriage and raising the age of marriage, transforming India into a non-secular Hindu Rashtra, prevention of widow re-marriage and so on.
Social reform is not what the RSS stands for but the creation of some sort of Hindu Caliphate. The RSS stands for regression and a harkening back to a time when in the fantasies of the RSS ideologues, there was just only one religion in Akhand Bharat, viz. Hinduism. And just as the Islamists want to set the clock back to the times of Prophet Mohammad, the RSS wants to set India back to 200 Ad or thereabouts. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to bring back Sati.
An “agenda of social reform” is as far away from the RSS ideology of Hindutva as possible.
This post of yours perhaps has missed its address.
On the contrary, this post identifies India’s problem : the RSS. Modi and his acolytes idea of reform is ‘cultural reform’, that is Hindurva,
In fact, in the first BJP govt. of Vajpayee, there was the sati of Roop Kanwar. The VHP called it restoration of a noble Hindu tradition.
you are the shameless one. did you see them watching? did you watch with them?
‘They will surely be thrashed once the BJP goes out of power.’
After the Nazis were thrown out of occupied Netherlands, France etc., the collaborators became overnight resistance fighters. I expect Arnob to make that switch.
However, more seriously, Congress and opposition do not have a plan to clear out our Nazis from India. That is, they should have a plan to dismantle RSS, probe their funding, and ban their marches, drill and hate speeches. They do not even realise that the RSS is India’s core problem. The Allied powers had a plan to weed out collaborators and de-Nazify Germany, which they implemented. Then, Germany and Europe recovered. In the case of India, outside countries cannot do this for us, Indians have to do it themselves.
Very balanced article. But blaming Bureaucrats and of all people Rahul Gandhi for botched land reform? Modi came with RSS agenda of social reform, people took it as economic reform and now that is unravelling
I think people were won over by Hindu communalism (you politely called it the RSS agenda for social reform), and did not understand economic reform.
Communalism is powerful and is easy to sell. They are good at it. People put aside economics for it.
Modi loves to be praised!
The ultra-blind supporters of Modi have nothing worthwhile to say about these so called “reforms” and have only earned the reputation of being foul-mouthed defenders of a failed dispensation. Their only job is to Glorify MODI !!!
Well said Mr Govardhan Das !
Bhakths are slowly transforming India into a Hindu Pakistan right under our very noses. In Pakistan, you usually get lynched by frenzied mobs if someone alleges that you have “insulted the Prophet”. Somewhat similar things seem to be happening in India – you are simply not allowed to question the decisions taken by Prophet Modi. Questioning Prophet Modi invokes the wrath of the paid hordes from the BJP IT Cell and the many middle-class devotees of the Modi religion. As is so evident even in these columns.
golcuppa
tu khuch bhi bol koi farak na padta be…lund hi rahega tu hamesa..
# 121. A vibrant message board. At this rate, the readers will be running Print.
#122. ….and spectators like you can keep ogling….;)
Coupta Sir, you have scored another Coup
Modi loves to look at the magic mirror and ask, “Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”….and when he hears the words Modi! Modi! Modi! again and again and again, his ego is pumped up. Over the last six years the only “reform” we have seen is his pumped up ego.
You summed it up!!!
I presume that “magic mirror” is just a euphemism for BHAKT !!!
Wow look at the Charasis talk you would think Rahul baba is manna from heaven.
Who the hell was speaking of Rahul Gandhi here ? The only mention of Rahul Gandhi comes in yet another puerile rant from none other than yourself …
He puts on his suit and pratcises his theatrical speeches in front of a mirror. His job is only that – how do to get his audience wildly enthusiastic. It centres round Congress, Rahul, Nehru, Muslims, Pak etc. He does pronounce Hindu frustrations, so many Hindus fall in love with him. Like Germans were captivated by Hitler and Goebbels who could articulate German frustrations.
I think Gupta ji has tried to strike a balance between being a modi critique and at the same time soothing modi supporters by placing blame squarely on bureaucrats. He certainly changed his posturing towards modi post 2019 victory as to ensure his financial viability. But, Shekharji also had to ensure that he sound like a liberal left leaning indian intellectual. Gupta ji is trying to be neutral, which I think is welcome, but it should not be tried rather it should be natural. I agree with this article, but Shekharji had made one principle mistake. Its not Modi’s ideas,,,, there are many reforms actually implemented by Modi, but yes economic ones have not given any conclusive outcome so far. So one cant say that Modi is not a good economic reformist, but outcome is not upto the mark. But did reform materialised when Narsimha was PM in tenure, did privatising telecom bore fruit while Atal ji was PM. So we got to wait for multiple economic reforms to prove itself in coming time
why to blame Beaurocrats when a brainless and arrogant PM at the helm ? what are Modis idea? Demonitisation? when somebody told him that through Demonitisation he can get 3 lakh crore to govt kitty ( as per affidavit submitted to SC ) he foolishly introduced the same without any after thought and we are suffering.
Mr V.O.Harindranathan: I fully agree with your observations.
That “somebody” you refer to and who was the original impetus for demonetisation was a quack called Anil Bokil who runs an NGO in Pune called Arthakranti (arthakranti.org). Bokil, who is no economist convinced Modi that removing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes would stop black money. And true to his ideology, PM Modi rejected the advice of trained, highly respected economists like Dr Raghuram Rajan, Dr Arvind Subramanian etc. and went ahead with this loony scheme virtually bringing the country to a standstill.
Demonetisation gutted the informal economy where 82% of India’s labour toils. It devastated the farm economy and the livelihoods of many agricultural workers. In a cash based economy like India, most transactions ground to halt. Banks were no more in the business of banking for more than 2 months as they had to collect old notes, disburse new notes, keep ATMs running and so on. And yet, none of the predicted benefits were attained. Most notes were returned and the % of fake notes was negligible.
Worse still, the Modi government did not understand the difference between stocks and flows. Black money generation is a continuous process and removing the stock of black money at any given point in time does not stop new flows ! Indeed, capital flight to safe havens in the West increased. And within a few weeks, brokers emerged who helped the rich launder black money into white using the Jan Dhan accounts of poor people. Paradoxically, demonetisation was a great enabler of money laundering and whitewashing of black money to white !!
But the biggest blow from demonetisation was its timing. At a time when oil prices were low, there was demand in the global economy for Indian exports, China had stumbled and India was poised to replace China and even Brazil in many markets, India was busy committing economic harakiri. And the informal sector of the Indian economy is yet to recover from this man-made, nay Modi-made shock.
No wonder trained experts in many fields refuse to work with the Modi government. Dr Raghuram Rajan, Urjit Patel, Arvind Subramanian and many others have quit. They have been replaced by RSS apparatchiks and yes men. Jai Hind.
And as Kejriwal asked on day 1, how does removing Rs 1000 and replacing with 2000 note reduce black money ? It speeds it up after some time !
Why do you targeting Modi Govt, He made lot, for instance opening bank account for all.
My personal experience was, my mother in law was getting old age pension by cash throw post office, delivered by postman. Every moth he visits her and giving only 970 rupees instead 1000 rupees. So he takes 30 rupees as commission. Think about his commission in that month if 1000 persons gets old age pension in that particular postal area.
After opening bank accounts, she is getting no less one paisa.
Like this so many we can lineup. You fuck go and pock your bloody nose somewhere.
Its time for you to tak up MANREGA Job…It is the most suitable job for ur understanding about “Reform”
So, the govt provides her only Rs. 1000? Is that called a “reform”? Can she buy a gas cylinder with that money? A sensible govt would have done better! It is pity people cannot see through the nefarious misdeeds of the ruling govt.
I’m sorry will you give me more regularly? If yes then i will vote for you if not please shut up
Are you his mother-in-law? So, you will vote for the person who pays you more money?…then that’s not called Democracy. You are the kind of scum who destroyed this nation. It is obvious that people who question the misdeeds of the ruling govt are forced to “shut up”. You don’t have to ASK us to, every time. Uncouth BJP IT Cell-hooligans like yourself are better off bootlicking your Saffron Master. Keep pandering to their bogus propaganda until you realise that they dont have any more money to pay YOU. You ought to use your common sense before shooting off a brainless comment.
ha ha ha
Mr K.Dakshinamoorthy: Whilst it is heartening to hear that your mother-in-law is able to get her pension without paying a commission due to her having a bank account, you omit many more details about this anecdote.
You do mention that the postman visits her and charges Rs 30 to transfer her the pension. But that raises a few questions:
– Is there a bank within walking distance of your mother-in-law’s house ?
– What would be the cost of travelling to the bank to get cash? So if she travels say 2 times a month to get cash from the bank, wouldn’t it be greater than Rs 30? After all, most businesses in India, especially small ones still operate on cash don’t they Sir?
Fact is Mr Dakshinamoorthy, India is a highly unbanked country with very few branches in rural areas. And one of the reasons for the failure of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is the remoteness of banks from many villages, farming and tribal communities. Additionally, financial literacy is poor, even in the educated classes and cash is king. All this resulted in many PMJDY accounts lying dormant and unutilised. Also noteworthy is the fact that NO private banks are interested in catering to the banking needs of rural India simply due to cost overheads and poor returns.
Hence, you cannot generalise from your mother-in-law’s experience to the rest of India. Anecdotes are not averages or aggregates.
As they say:
“One swallow does not a summer make”
Bureaucrats know that Modi’s actions are to support crony capitalism while trying to appear socialist. They also know that in reality, he practices electoral authoritarianism.
Bureaucrats in PMO think they have power and there is fear among other bureaucrats. First group takes crazy decision being invincible and other set of bureaucrats keep evaluating thing being anxious. After all, “Procrastination is the lazy cousin of fear. When we feel anxiety around an activity, we postpone it.”
The problem with Modi’s governance is that everything is highly dependent on the bureaucrats, and in fact guided by bureaucrats. Hence, you end up with unfriendly laws and rules, which put off the public and investors. GST is the best example of such law in the throttle grip of bureaucrats. Every change in law complicates the matter and throws up more problems. He has some good ministers like Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Ravi Shankar Prasad. But, entire initiative has been snatched away from them and held by the PMO. To put it simply, the political vision is lost in this Government. This centralised governance is a failure and slow to respond to urgencies.
Shekhar sir we consider you as someone who respects good and fair journalism your analysis of blaming the babus for the poor economic reforms implementation is no where near the truth and you had stated that you are giving an alayby to Modi bhakts to say so . Is it not contradictory to applaud the decision making ability of the PM when it comes implementation of demonitization and lockdown and blaming the bereucrats for the poor or nil implementation of economic reforms.its not that we feel happy if you critisise Modi government for no reason but only expect truth
What reformer? RSS wants us to tale back 5000 years. And you say, not a reformer? Come on Guptaji.
Modi… A reformer… WTF… We didn’t vote for him thinking he is a refomer… We gave vote for him to feed our bigotry… Development is just a byproduct for many of us “if at all there is any”
Mr. Gupta, it’s interesting that in your analysis you omit all the PMs of the Gandhi-Nehru family, despite the tenure of their rule. You also conveniently omit that the reforms of the 90s came on the back of the same above PMs that had banned things as basic as the drycleaning equipment in the first place. You give no importance to the catalytic impact of the Soviet bloc changes. And the lack of internet and social media that enabled the emergence of a lead, curated narrative. So either you are journalistically challenged or logically wanting.
SO WHO PROVOKED CHINA & THE UAE ?
There have been attempts to deflect the blame for the abysmal, yes abysmal record of the Modi government on many domestic fronts, particularly the economy on the calibre of the bureaucracy. In characteristic Donald Trump fashion, when things go wrong, the fault is someone else’s and when things go well, usually schemes done by previous governments, Modi inserts himself in the limelight to get the credit. And when things go down the drain, Modi retreats and the Jaitleys (RIP), Nirmala Sitharamans, Sambit Patras and a host of other flunkeys are paraded forward to justify loony, absurd schemes like during demonetisation. And the diehard Modi bhakths who religiously believe that their Messiah is infallible, will do everything to pin the blame on everybody except the Messiah. “His intentions with demonetisation were good” the bhakth will assert assiduously.
But what about schemes, statements and policies of the Modi regime that evoke the wrath of foreign powers and endanger India ?
UAE & MIDDLE EAST
Take for instance BJP’s avowed anti-Muslim stance, forgetting how that Quisling Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi spins it. Amit Shah calls Muslims termites, Tejaswi Surya insults Arabs and Muslims, Kapil Mishra vows to shoot Muslims, Adityanath endorses the rape of dead Muslim women and so on. Predictably, governments in the Middle East where Indians work and send much needed remittances home take notice and protest. Foreign Minister Jaishankar then has to work the phones to placate enraged governments in the Middle East.
Can the bureaucracy be blamed for this BJP self-goal ?
CHINA
On 5th Aug 2019, Amit Shah spoke in the Parliament about changes in the status of Jammu & Kashmir. Shah mentioned in his speech* that the entire Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin, the area that China annexed in 1962 would be recovered. That message did not fall on deaf ears in China. Once again, Foreign Minister Jaishankar had to travel to China to clarify matters and mollify the Chinese. Apparently with little luck as later events show.
And today, China crosses the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and occupies chunks of Indian territory. Clearly, 56 inch chested Gujaratis do not evoke much fear in China.
Can the bureaucracy be blamed for this BJP self-goal ?
BOTTOMLINE: PM Modi’s and the BJP’s pandering to and appeasing of Hindutva forces in the country is a deadly game fraught with many dangers. The adityanaths , Amit shahs , Tejaswi Suryas and their ilk might gladden the hearts of bhakths with their anti-Muslim, “akhand Bharath” ideas. But that deadly ideology would affect the territorial integrity of India. And also cause economic ruin.
*See analysis by former Ambassador K.P. Fabian at ref: bit.ly/2zaysUl
Give it a break, mate. You have already earned twice your daily wages from your interjections. You can continue next week.
Mr/Ms Mandal: Again, unwanted, unasked for advice that makes me wonder whether you are a gaurakshak who has overdosed on gomutra. In any case, your puerile rants remind me of the aphorism:
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.
It’s not the bureaucracy but the team of illiterate uneducated members that’s running the Union Government of India. Modi is just a dumb, brainless opportunist who knows nothing but delivering speeches in Hindi. His speeches are hailed by the super-dumb super-opportunist section of the Indian populace. This guy (Modi) is the face behind whom the BJP & RSS are pushing their propaganda which they strongly believe will work in the long run. The BJP & RSS are heading for a massive massive failure!
Would you like dinosaur and stone age advisor to advise you? Shekhar Gupta is vintage brain. Family loyalist.
Does the govt do reforms for the sake of media or does it have to do reforms where it is genuinely needed? Having held the broom to clean up corruption in higher echelons in the 1st tenure and bringing a closure to the long pending national security issues, Modi would do well to focus on
a. Agricultural reforms
b. Judicial reforms
c. Higher education reforms
d. Police reforms
The factors which led the bureaucracy to reform themselves in 1991 exists in all these areas. Populace is suffering because these four are still in pre-independence era. Not doing reforms in these areas will make Modi look like what Shekar ji has written.
Dare not to speak against mr modi he is reforming a country in a way which is not understeble by the paid and fake journalist like u where are your words during last sixty years of poverty
Dare not to speak against mr modi he is reforming a country in a way which is not understeble by the paid and fake journalist like u where are your words during last sixty years of poverty
Many of the guys that sat in the first bench went on to become bureaucrats. The ones right after them became entrepreneurs creating jobs. Now the first benchers are hindering our progress, for the second benchers and the rest. Bureaucracy is the biggest cruelty on a democratic nation.
The story does have merit, particularly the observations on the quality of present lot of bureaucrats.
PMO concentration of power and his lack of consultation and an environment of fear has been the undoing for the economy so far in Modi’s India. The bureaucrats cannot really be blamed since they represent the political leadership.
the so called most powerful and decisive PM couldn’t get his handpicked bureaucrats to do his biding… Are we read this as a satire? Have guts to blame the big guy for the failures
What did Manmohan Singh do while he was PM? 🙂
Mr Nishant: Does that matter ? Shouldn’t you be holding the man who now holds the reins of power accountable? Or is it tantamount to blasphemy to question the Delhi University alumnus who rules – yes rules – over the country like an Indian version of Idi Amin?
In any case, Dr Manmohan Singh left the economy of the country in pretty good shape. Under his astute leadership, India successfully weathered the 2008 global financial crisis that unleashed havoc on most countries. Indeed, an objective analysis will reveal that on 11 out f 15 indicators of economic health, the worst of the MMS period was actually better than the best of the Modi period, see ref: bit.ly/2Uhm38p
Admittedly, Dr Manmohan Singh was hobbled by the fact that he presided over a wobbly coalition, corruption was more visible and the true reins of power were with the Gandhi family. Those onerous constraints notwithstanding, the Manmohan Singh period did not witness economic mismanagement and economic harakiri of the type the Gujarati Delhi University alumnus has heaped upon the country. Trained, top notch economists called the shots on economic policy, not a quack like Anil Bokil of the Pune based NGO Arthakranti (arthakranti.org) who persuaded the Delhi University graduate to demonetise.
As the Renaissance Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machaivelli (1469-1527) said:
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him”
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him”
The principal ruler is a walrus in Nagpur who wears khakhi knickers and says he can moblise his drill men in 3 days to help the army at the LAC. India’s downfall stems from this walrus only. The rest are his appointees.
He has appointed a dutiful chai wallah with a forged degree, and a pogrom in his bio data, to be the PM.
The chai wallah then selects the rest of the cast as per his intellect :
Smriti Irani, 10th standard pass, was appropriate for Education, to fire IIT Directors and VCs of universities.
Sushma Swaraj was shadow foreign minister, for visiting countries where Modi did not want to go.
Amit Shah, fake encounter specialist, is HM in charge of concentration camp programme, but talks about foreign policy and Aksai Chin.
Health Minister believes in Covid pappad.
Sitaraman, defence minister for a short period, was employed to make a speech saying Rafale was not a scam. Now she is the clueless Finance Minister who says she does not know about onion prices because she does not eat it, and an Act of God has sabotaged her 5 trillion promise.
A Yogi who dresses as the next Vivekananda, and who puts doctors who saved children from Japanese encephalitis in gaol for upstaging him in healthcare, hopes to be the next PM.
You also need a method to estimate the intelligence of the subjects who select such rulers and are proud of them.
Sir are you saying the strongest motivation the senior most bureaucrats across decades in India have is personal – that they feel humiliated abroad, or don’t want to give up powers they’ve suddenly grabbed?
Where is their training, the responsibility of a civil ‘service’, the gandhi talisman we all read on every textbook?
Do you really think our civil service is this vain, or you’ve just simplified it for a lazy write-up?
Regards.
Modi’s bootlickers will promptly defend Modi no matter what. Perhaps the only organisation that continues to function properly is the BJP IT CELL. That is because those foul-mouthed personnel continue to receive a handsome salary, albeit at the cost of the tax payer. Considering the BJP’s numerous misdeeds over the last six years, it is obvious that the ruling govt is forced to defend itself in such a low manner. Congress looted India in 60 years, while the BJP looted double that sum of money within a matter of six years! Now that’s called progress!…isn’t it?
In politics it is often seen that those in the Opposition benches do not see eye to eye with those on the Treasury benches. After all they need to come back to power after the five years term if not before. Audio, visual, print media, have also in a similar way backed either the ruling or the opposition. It is truly difficult to find an unbiased report and this is obvious because the Houses that back the audio, visual, print media choose the personnel who will toe their line … meaning back up the treasury or the Opposition ranks . The article above smacks clearly of a bias towards the Opposition; except for the valuable inputs provided, of the Oppostion role during their tenure in the Treasury. Hence this article on a scale of 10 would fetch just 3 marks
Your views are out of line. You have to exercise caution. There is only one PM before Modi who could be classified as reformist who ended license Raj. All others were Nehru lap dogs after his death.
Mr Hari Sud: Rubbish !
The first steps towards dismantling the licence Raj and opening the Indian economy to the world were taken by then PM Narasimha Rao and implemented by then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. All subsequent governments, including the Vajpayee led NDA, the 2 incarnations of UPA under Dr Manmohan Singh and even the Modi led BJP have all continued that policy trend. Albeit with reform being predicated and secondary to their own political survival.
Fact is, regardless of the PM or political party in power, crony capitalists have always influenced governments to give them special exemptions from competition, influenced the extent of foreign ownership in ind, preferential treatment during tendering and so on. No Indian political party – barring possibly AAP – can function without a symbiotic relationship to financiers from the large corporate players. Indeed, the BJP under PM Modi has its preferred set of “dhokla” cronies !!!
As someone once said:
“Every 5 years, the masses vote in the government; between the 5 years, the classes tell the government what to do”.
Applies very much to the 56 inch chested Gujarathi graduate of Delhi University too Mr Hari Sud !!
All big words does not disguise your love for the Nehru family
Criticising the political party in power does not necessarily translate to endorsing another party. Get that into your skull will you ?
Dear Reader
As we all know critics always welcome by Modi Govt. But some people loby who only try to defame particular persanality for their own personal interest, nothing will come out as natural. And this what this article written for. This Darbari and designer journalism never help country, not in India even, if they get opportunity they will do to defame india in front of world
Quite an inane logic trying to blame the bureaucrats. The same set of bureaucrats, if anything more conservative, were present during the times of PV and Vajpayee. Those PMs had competence to get things done. Current situation is akin to नाच ना जाने आँगन टेढ़ा. A great example of how spineless most of media has become
How did Modi win 303 seats? Answer:
1. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi
2. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
3. Swach Bharat Mission
4. Ujjwala Yojana
5. Mudra Loans
Who implemented all these welfare schemes efficiently? The bureaucracy? Or ThePrint?
I recommend you to try to start a business without giving bribes.
PM Modi won largely due to the vagaries of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system that India and many former English speaking colonies have inherited from the British colonial masters. Most other democracies in Europe and elsewhere use a proportional system of elections whereby votes polled translates and corresponds to seats won in the legislature. Thus, in the 2019 elections, despite the BJP winning just 37% of the votes, it gets a disproportionately large number of seats in the Parliament.
For sure, this is the system in vogue in India and the legislative outcomes from the electoral process need to be respected – no questions asked, no ifs and buts. But to claim that people voted for him due to schemes that never reached many, never had the intended benefits and were actually enablers of money laundering and other scams is taking it too far.
BJP won because of tampering voting machines….nothing else. No sensible person would have voted for them even after Demonetisation. The Common Man is not that foolish.
That can’t be ruled out either Mr Sooraj !
These days, there has been a paradigm change from the physical booth capture technology of the past to the more sophisticated “ballot capture” technology. Aided and abetted by EVMs !
Really Sooraj? , and your yes man below killi is clapping and dancing? Effing idiots both of you.
Mr Baba kan: Whilst your ability to abuse is outstanding, your ability to argue is, a different story. And a pathetic one at that.
Alas Mr Baba Kan, you intellectual impotence cannot be treated by the Viagra you have been prescribed for a different type of impotence !
Article headline is not correct. You can’t blame there are lot of reforms now if states does not ask states. Not a single media question state why they are not adjusting their laws to pass center reforms. Center put things as a nation now if state does not adopt go and question them ask ministers. In a state there is handful of ministries who work and reform remaining enjoy their power. Who can question them. This article is a clear Paid article!!!!!!!!!!
Mr Nag: So when things go well, Modi should get the credit, and when things go badly, the states and the bureacracy and everyone but Modi should get the blame? That is the very definition of a blinkered, blind bhakth!
The bureaucrats have fallen in line. The problem is with the edifice of bureaucracy…the methods and the maze of rules…even our Constitution of 1950, unfortunately, has more than 100 amendments!!!!
Let me illustrate – the maze of rules unattended for decades after Independence. After leaving a salaried job at age 50, like SG, I became an entrepreneur and, unlike SG, founded an MSME in the manufacturing sector. I played by the rules. So I thought, until the concerned “Inspector” did not renew my license. The reason – my MSME did not maintain a register which recorded and certified that all my workers were wearing tight clothing at work every day – a bit of paraphrasing here; but I suppose you get the drift.
These rules, clauses, notes and notes to notes will take decades to decode and change. I will recommend that India sit down and draft all together new rules for business!!!
Col Kl Viswanathan: I am afraid your cure:
“I will recommend that India sit down and draft all together new rules for business!!!”
will be worse than the original disease !
Simply because you will now have the old rules and the new rules and there will nothing more than misrule!
Take for instance the renaming of houses in the street in Madras where my parents live. All houses now have an “old number”, a “new number” and a “revised number”. Letters and correspondence ought to reflect all 3 to be sure of areaching people in that street. Indeed, almost every house I know of has an “old number” and a “new number” dutifully painted on the door. In addition to the name of the house, usually a short piece of text.
But even more dangerous with generating new rules is that you may end up paying double baksheesh.
As Oscar Wilde once said:
“A bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy”
Hi Kili,
Thanks for the the reply.
New rules means all old rules are OUT, without ambiguity… Once the new rules for a “subject” is introduced no more referring to old rules….That part may not be difficult
Yes, it will take some action to draft the new rules. But then anything will entail some bold and defining actions…without ACTIONS there can’t be results. Blame games will never take us forward
Romba thanks Col KL Viswanathan avargale !
To re-iterate, my limited point is that new rules in India may not necessarily replace old rules. For instance, during demonetisation, nobody knew what rules applied and the rules depended on whom you asked. And the baksheeshphilia of the average Indian babu is such that he can use your ignorance of the rules and his authority to get you to cough up money. When the bureaucracy is not honest – rules old or new – only cause more nuisance for the average citizen and a business opportunity for the babus.
This Colonel is a duplicitous Hindutva type living safely in the US, and he is always making not so subtle excuses for Modi’s failures.
Just study his last line : ‘Blame games will never take us forward’.
It means ‘don’t blame Modi’.
This Colonel wrote that Modi is running very hard to catch up for the lost time of 70 years of Congress rule. In other words, we must give Modi a carte blanche permanently, and not assess his performance, and when he refers to the last 70 years of lost time, he is not playing the Modi blame game !
Do you know the saying about Hindus like you ‘Muh main Ram, bagal main churi’ ?
“…because his bureaucrats lack the motivation to push…”
I read up to there, and gave up.
You see, according to Gupta, it is all about the “bureaucrats,” and only about the “bureaucrats.”
Kaash, if only we had better “bureaucrats”… India would then truly be “saare jahan se accha…”
Lol!
well the article was pretty balanced. im a fan of bjp and modi but very disappointed by the economic performance, where all the sectors have suffered. remember the hyped up nuclear deal. what is the status of it. does anyone remember about it. same is the case with so many promises. the gdp growth rates have gone for a toss. i was so pumped up when the govt came to power and assumed that we would reach dizzy heights. instead what we have is a cow fight, tu tu mein mein, and complete failure to deliver on economic promises. to blame it on bureaucracy is to say that we have already accepted our loss and thats about it. we cannot do anything more than this. so is that why we have voted bjp–more than 350 seats, to blame on bureaucracy. are you trying to say that the country is beyond redemption in such a case. political will can do wonders shekar ji, our modi sarkar needs to regain its capability to execute rather than the blame game. i would rather put the blame on lack of a good team of ministers under the present govt. there’s practically no administrative experience
i wish we had a logical interpretation of the article by the ones giving feedback as well, instead of bulldozing anyone opposing modi as anti national, yellow print, etc. , i’m sorry to say that you are doing a disservice to yourselves by being in denial. and please dont blame Covid for the current state. we were in a bad shape much before that.
Narendra Damodardas Modi is the only PM of India who is able to bring reformation in the economy of the country. He had some problem and the problem is not simmilar to the problems faced by his predicessor 40 years ago. He can do the change and will do in time.
At what cost to the common man? Or don’t you care Mr/Ms KP Ray ?
Mr Killi, let me ask you this? Do you want Rahul Gandhi to be the PM and magically expect every thing to be hunky dory?
Mr Babakan: Where have I said that Rahul Gandhi should be made the PM ? Nobody is ir-replaceable in this world and certainly not an incompetent man like PM Modi. And even if you think that he is the best PM that India has had, what do you think will happen if PM Modi suffers from ill-health or gets incapacitated in some way? Do you think that India will come to a standstill? After all, isn’t your mentor and role model Yogi Adityanath waiting in the wings to take over from Modi?
And then, are things really hunky-dory under the Modi regime as we know today? An economy that was run into the ground thanks to spectacular incompetence, Chinese occupation of Indian territory provoked by termite man Amit Shah’s claim that India will recover Aksai Chin, the spectre of Indian workers in Muslim countries like UAE being sent back due to Islamophobic statement by BJP politicians, lynchings of innocent Muslims, a botched response to the COVID crisis, extravagant vanity projects like the Sardar Patel statue, a bullet train to nowhere, an expensive Central Vista project in Delhi, 2 expensive Boeing 757 aircraft to ferry the PM …
Meanwhile migrant workers face the prospect of starvation and loss of livelihood. But then, cows and the well-being of India’s most expensive PM are what matter to gaurakshaks like you.
SHAME ON YOU !
I am reading in comments that Modi did reforms but there is nowhere written which reforms. Please enlighten me.
This article is the start of building a classic case taken from corporate boardrooms to cover the leaders and blame the team.
Modi is a mere two penny socialist and not a reformist.
Socialism is a refined word, not worthy of the likes of Modi!…….. Modi would be best classified as a TYRANT.
Indians are the most undisciplined , self aggrandizing people in the world. Forget Modi , if GOD becomes PM no change will happen. May it is time for the Coronavirus to do its job.
Good one, Shekhar Gupta. While you’ve alluded to the lack of grey cells in the bureaucracy, what about the absolute scarcity of the same in the political leadership of today? Don’t you miss the astuteness of Narsimaha Rao? The calm confidence of Manmohan Singh? The readiness-to-see the other picture of Vajpayee and his ability to rein in the divisive influences of the RSS? All we have today is an electioneering juggernaut where, starting from the prime minister himself, promises that would carry that particular election are made but seldom kept. Their desire to leave a political legacy is just not matched by their intelligence and therefore, gets wasted in projects like erecting the tallest statue, importing technology for a bullet train while the Indian Railways is desperate for measures to improve the safety and comfort of the common passenger. Reforms like the triple talaq bill, CAA, NRC, Removal of Article 370 etc. have been bulldozed through and have caused more grief rather than improve the lives of the citizens. The trolls that a comment like this would attract is symbolic of how low our political discourse has fallen. In times past, it was a pleasure to hear our prime ministers speak, not to mention read tones like “Discovery of India”! If this continues for the next four years, this era would be rated worse than the UPA II!
One is reminded of the old adage: A bad workman always blames his tools.
Journalists are meant to speak truth to people in power, not try to become apologists for a prime minister who behaves like an autocrat.Why blame bureaucrats when all the government and this PM is interested in is in managing newspaper headlines and Public relations. Look at When a prime minister talks, it is politics and what he actually does is policy.This prime minister is very good at talking and hence his popularity; but pretty poor at policy. It is the job of journos like SG to expose this dichotomy ,but instead tries to offer fig leaves.
Which bureaucrat is to blame for the twin disasters of demonetisation and GST? Which bureaucrat is to blame for the rocky relations that India is currently having with all its neighbours, even Nepal? Which bureaucrat is to blame for calling a lockdown with less than 4 hours notice in a continent sized country like India without even speaking to state governments who were supposed to implement it? Which bureaucrat is to blame for the Delhi riots which where clearly triggered by the rabble rousing aimed at minorities by the PM and his cronies with an eye on Delhi elections? Which bureaucrat is to blame for a very botched response to the pandemic which has seen cases balloon to 10000/day despite a lockdown which has brought the economy to its knees its knees and caused deaths of hundreds of migrants?
The truth is this PM is not a democrat.He has surrounded himself with ‘yes’ men and and women who will never tell him the truth.Look at what happened to people of integrity like Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel.The closest he resembles of past PMs is Indira Gandhi ,who was also very powerful, but surrounded herself with a kitchen cabinet full of yes men and achieved very little as a consequence..He is not a reformer in any sense of the term and the only thing he is good at is coming up with good, but meaningless slogans and acronyms like make in India and atmanirbhar(like Indira Gandhi’s Garibi hatao, but pretty much useless at everything else.
Barking dogs seldom bite.People like MMS/PVNRao/ABV were not very good at PR,but had the good sense to know what is good for the country and would surround themselves with people of integrity and calibre. The current occupant of the PM’s office has none of these qualities and will blunder on from one disaster to next till people of India wake up and smell the coffee.
An outstanding, apt and hard-hitting comment Mr JaiPrakash ! Arguably, one of the best summaries of how disasters in India are more Modi-made than man-made. These were all preventable and reflect the sheer incompetence of the PM and the Hindutva coterie around him. Not the bureaucracy per se.
But alas, the middle-classes will continue to support this autocrat even as they lose their purchasing power and their political freedoms. And in any case, most members of the middle-classes – though not all – do not care for the plight of their servants who hail from the poorer parts of India. Thus, the many maids and drivers that dutifully made the life of the middle-class sahib and memsahib a dance on roses have disappeared. But how many from the middle-classes have questioned the wisdom of Modi’s sudden lockdown that essentially was a death warrant to many migrants?
Arnab Goswami supplies them with enough fuel to stoke their latent anti-Muslim feelings and Amit Shah convinces them Muslims are termites. But then, with a paid media singing praises to this all-knowing, jet-setting Delhi University alumnus despite the economy tanking and Chinese annexation of grabbing Indian territory, nobody in the middle-class sees anything wrong with the Gujarati Messiah.
Sad but true.
You seem terribly frustrated. If only we could dispense with the people — that would be real democracy according to you. Luckily yours is a minority view.
Mr/Ms Mandal: Well thanks for the response and the unasked for diagnosis that labels me as being “frustrated”. When I need to see a doctor, I will find one who is not a quack – thanks, bit no thanks though for the free analysis !
Nowhere in my original post do I say that people should be dispensed off. Indeed, my post argues against the gagging of the press and the putrid phenomenon of paid media that the Modi regime promotes. And a free press that I argue for is indeed one of the facets of democracy isn’t it Mr/Ms Mandal ? And isn’t democracy not a device that has institutional safeguards such as respect and equal rights for majorities as I argue in my post?
I argue for the rights of the many millions of poor migrant workers condemned to death by slow starvation by the Modi regime. Protecting the poor and vulnerable is also an important feature of democracy.
I strongly suggest you see a shrink. And in the interim, stop being an amateur shrink – you stink at being a shrink !!
Kili, You forget the land China took when MMS was in power. Selective memory! . I was impressed with you initially, but Now I realize that you are hot air.
Shekhar Gupta is a sold anti indian journalist he don’t have any creditability.